Friday, February 6, 2015

Elementary Season 3 Episode 13 "Hemlock" – Recap and Review

Elementary Sherlock Holmes Jonny Lee Miller in CBS Season 3 Episode 13 Hemlock

After the departure of his protege Kitty Winter (Ophelia Lovibond), Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) is desperate for company in the brownstone. He is even willing to use the women he sleeps with as a sounding board.

The opening scene shows one such instance where a shirtless Sherlock is discussing a case with couple of scantily clad women on the bed. Despite his enthusiasm, the ladies do not share his passion for crime solving.

The next day, Holmes receives a new case in the form of Jill Horowitz (Amy Hargreaves), who suspects her husband Steven Horowitz of having an affair. Steven is an attorney at Dorchester-Reid, a famous law firm.

At the firm, Sherlock and Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) find out that Steven had been fired six months back. But, Steven has hidden this fact from his wife by having his secretary continue to take her calls and continue the pretense that he still has his job.




Steven runs SMH Inc., a debt collection agency. The NYPD picks up Eduardo Pena (Jacinto Taras Riddick), one of Steven's employees for questioning. He informs them that Steven had let go off all his employees last week.

Sherlock deduces that Eduardo has stolen the list of Steven's list of people. One of them is Owen Downey in Connecticut. Sherlock and Joan discover that he is bed-ridden and suffering from a life threatening disease. His aunt, Carla (Jayne Houdyshell) tells them that Steven had forgiven Owen's debt and was more of a friend to him.

Sherlock deduces that Steven was killed due to his sudden change of mind about collecting debts. The killer turns out to be one Coleman Brown (Ben Livingston), a partner in a firm whose attorneys turn out to be Steven's company, Dorchester-Reid.

Canonical References
The episode's plot reminded me of the original story, The Man with the Twisted Lip. In Arthur Conan Doyle's work, Neville St. Clair claims to be working a regular respectable job in the city. But he is actually a street beggar, earning alms to support his family.

In the customary subplot, Andrew Paek (Raza Jaffrey) is back in town, after setting up business in Copenhagen. He invites Joan to meet his father, Santosh Paek (Brian George) over a dinner.

Joan Watson boyfriend Andrew Raza Jaffrey Elementary Season 3 Episode 13 Hemlock

But Joan is having doubts about the future of their relationship, as Sherlock correctly deduces. She decides to break up with him.

In the closing scene, she is having coffee with him and informs him of her decision. Andrew starts gagging and falls unconscious to the floor. Joan tries to revive him.

SPOILER ALERT................ (Scroll below to read)
















The preview for the next episode indicates that Andrew has died from hemlock poisoning in his drink.








........ END OF SPOILER

This made me think as to why this episode was named Hemlock”, when that poisonous material plays such a small role in today's episode.


Joan Watson wearing black blazer dress CBS Elementary Season 3 Episode 13 Hemlock

Everyone's favorite turtle, Clyde make his reappearance. He is inadvertently painting. 

After a relatively strong first half, this episode was a bit of a letdown. The impact of Kitty's absence was quite telling.

Hopefully, the next episode will pick up the steam as Joan seems to be the target this time (as was Kitty in the previous episodes).

Click here to read all my posts about CBS Elementary.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to this blog by clicking here.

Image Source: CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

You might also like:


Elementary Season 1 Review
Elementary - Cast Review


10 comments:

  1. Kitty was potentially a more interesting character than the emotionally dead Watson. Half of her relationship with Sherlock feels abusive (towards him).

    But mostly, they just need to figure out how to keep things interesting. Kitty was a cool idea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agree with your thoughts. Kitty was like a breath of fresh air.

      Hope the writers can make up for her absence with better plots/characterizations.

      B2B.

      Delete
  2. I enjoyed the episode, although the plot was fairly simple and not up to standard. I hope we get to see Clyde's masterpiece since, according to Sherlock, the turtle was truly enjoying himself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well said, Kathleen. Hopefully the next episode will be more engrossing. I too am curious to see Clyde's artwork.

      B2B.

      Delete
  3. Bloody heck! Spoiler alert re Andrew's death!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the reminder. I have included a spoiler alert in the post.

      B2B.

      Delete
  4. I noticed that Joan nearly walked into a woman on her way to the table and then the woman left rapidly....there would have been no point to this had the woman not poisoned Joan's boyfriend's drink :0 good episode though.....as they all are :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. OK - apart from the fact that hemlock poisoning takes MUCH longer - google it.

    ReplyDelete